Railway Special: Book train e-tickets without Android phone or Internet in mobile

Mumbai, June 12: Don't you have any Android phone or internet facility in your mobile phone? Are you facing problem in getting e-tickets? Don't worry. Soon, you too may be able to buy e-tickets and that too without internet and without android phone.

Yes, Western Railway (WR) on Tuesday, June 9 has come up with a special technology which will provide mobile ticketing for phones without GPRS or Internet.

Until now, only the commuters, who have Android phones, were able to avail technology that enabled them to buy suburban tickets and take print-outs of the same at Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs).

An official has been quoted as saying, "We are trying to see if we can provide e-tickets without the Internet or mobile ticketing to those who do not have GPRS/Internet."

"We have launched android-based e-ticketing but realised that there is a huge section of commuters which might comprise labourers or middle-class housewives who do not own a cellphone with the Android OS but also travel once in a while. This floating population is our target," media report quoted the official as saying.

"It (the new system) will reduce the burden on our ticket counters. The plan is to get rid of as many ticket counters as we can and have less of windows or maybe only one window on either side of each station," said the official.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated mobile ticketing system on the Mumbai suburban system at Dadar in Dec 2014.

Everyday, at least 300 to 400 e-tickets have been bought by commuters using the mobile ticketing system whereas the target is 21 lakh on WR and 30 lakh on CR.